The House on Tuesday passed a bill that would require the Department of Administrative services to offer a high-deductible plan, a choice now offered by many employers because it typically has a lower premium.

Any employees taking the option would be required to set up a pre-tax health savings account, and the state would deposit into that account 80 percent of the difference between what it would have contributed toward standard coverage and its share of the cheaper premium.

Supporters of the bill, which heads to the Senate, said Indiana saved $8 million last year because a high percentage of employees switched. Head over to the Indiana State Personnel Department and you’ll see that employee share of premiums for those plans are starting to nudge up and the state is decreasing its subsidy of the deductible. Insurance industry analysts have long said that while overall costs of such plans are lower than PPOs, costs do “bounce” after the first year of implementation.

Ohio currently offers a traditional PPO. The state is self-insured, meaning it has a pot of money out of which claims are paid and the plan is administered for a fee by private insurers. UnitedHealthcare of Ohio and Medical Mutual of Ohio divide the territory.

It would cost the department about $500,000 to set up the high-deductible option, according to a financial analysis by the Legislative Service Commission. The one-time expenses would include reprogramming its personnel software system and hiring a consultant to help pick a plan and third-party administrator.

The commission could not peg a savings amount because there’s no way of knowing the plan design or how many employees would switch. The document does note the state tried this 10 years ago, before high-deductible plans were all the rage, and had to cancel the pilot program for lack of participation: When it ended in 2002, 100 of 17,000 employees had signed up.